Designantropologia e memória: cocriando narrativas visuais para o memorial Apolônio Melônio com o boi da floresta

Abstract

In the Liberdade neighborhood of São Luís (MA), the practice of Bumba-meu-boi in the Boi da Floresta group is a skill that extends far beyond the stage and the June festival season. Sustained by a plot that intertwines the lives of the performers, the memory of Mestre Apolônio, the needs of the community, and daily resistance in the face of socioeconomic vulnerability and state neglect, the performance is a vital agent of social cohesion and material survival. Despite its relevance, these multiple dimensions of the practice often remain diluted or invisible due to hegemonic narratives that reduce the ox to a folkloric spectacle or a crystallized cultural symbol. Therefore, this work presents the research processes that sought to investigate whether and how the design-anthropology approach can contribute to the remembrance, updating, and tangibilization of the social memory of Boi da Floresta, through the co-creation of visual narratives for the future Apolônio Melônio Memorial. The research, which is qualitative and applied in nature, is based on the approaches of design anthropology and participatory action research. The methodological path was not rigidly predefined, but was continuously designed and redesigned based on 14 months of correspondence in the field at the ox shed, following the materials, gestures, and stories in the flow of the group's activities and in the relationships with leaders Nadir Cruz and Talyene Melônio. The common plan emerged from intersubjective encounters and was materialized through correspondence practices and conversation devices, which functioned as design elements open to engagement. Among the co-creative tools and processes, the following stand out: the approach through preliminary workshops; the digitization and recollection of the photographic collection; the development and application of a photo-audio-conversation prototype to evoke memories of Mestre Apolônio; participatory iconographic mapping with Graphic Design students; and workshops for the co-creation of the visual identity and expographic poetics of the memorial. The results were analyzed through theoretical and intersubjective triangulation, intertwining the narratives of the community, the theoretical framework, and the researcher's experience. Finally, the work presents reflections on the narrative and ethical character of design anthropology practice. The approach proved to be a path to attentive and non-extractivist correspondence, where local know-how and the social memory experienced by the group could become the basis for a collective project. The results show that, more than visual products, the process constituted a methodological testimony of how design can operate as a practice of cultural resistance, strengthening the narrative autonomy of the community and contributing to the active safeguarding of its intangible heritage, honoring the legacy of Mestre Apolônio and the continuity of Boi da Floresta.